Culinary tips from the Nurburgring

Nobody could accuse the locals around the Nurburgring of being backwards when it comes to making money out of the place.
And on previous trips to the 'Ring, I thought I’d seen pretty much every kind of Nurburgring product. Initially there were just the stickers that no trip to the 'Ring is complete without – I’ve still got a couple of old ones applied to my filing cabinet. But in recent years the circuit’s name and iconic shape has been applied to everything from beer mugs to babies' bibs.

Nobody could accuse the locals around the Nurburgring of being backwards when it comes to making money out of the place.

And on previous trips to the 'Ring, I thought I’d seen pretty much every kind of Nurburgring product. Initially there were just the stickers that no trip to the 'Ring is complete without – I’ve still got a couple of old ones applied to my filing cabinet. But in recent years the circuit’s name and iconic shape has been applied to everything from beer mugs to babies' bibs.

But yesterday I found a new one that made me laugh out loud: Nurburgring pasta. And you have to salute the marketing nous of whoever looked at the 'Ring’s characteristic shape and realised it would make the transition to a dried food perfectly.

Okay, scale accuracy has been sacrificed in the production process – the modern circuit is about three times bigger than it should be. But it looked good enough to persuade me to fork out €3.99 for a bag. Boiled for six minutes and mixed with a bit of pesto it tasted pretty good, too – although I doubt that (despite the bag’s claims to be the World’s Fastest Pasta) it actually made me any quicker.

So what other unlikely tie-ins could be made from race circuit’s shapes? Brands Hatch could be turned into a coat hook without too much hassle, Silverstone has potential as a novelty knuckle-duster.